A Transneft spokesman said as many as six tankers have been held up at the port of Novorossiisk and 2,400 railcars have been waiting for reloading.

Four industry sources told Reuters earlier that shipments from the IPP terminal at Novorossiisk have been disrupted since early February due to a row over control of the port.

Transneft blames the port’s captain for “unlawful” interference in its commercial operations.

It added that it was experiencing a shortage of railcars for loadings at Tikhoretsk, a railway junction and pipeline hub in the region, and had asked Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov to intervene.

Three sources said oil product shipments from the IPP terminal at the port of Novorossiisk have been delayed over a managerial conflict.

The port did not reply to a written request for comment.

Trading sources said that loading operations of two tankers - Andromeda, chartered by Litasco, and Trafigura’s Atlantas II - had been cancelled.

“Ships have been waiting in the harbour of Novorossiisk,” a trader said.

It is not clear when the port will return to normal operations. Each month it handles around 300,000 to 350,000 tonnes of oil products, mainly naphtha and diesel. (Reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin in London and Natalia Chumakova and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; editing by Jason Neely and Adrian Croft)